Omaha daily bee., 1887-04-29
KNIGHTS AND THE CHURCH
Cardinal Manning Reviews the Recent De.
cision of the Holy See.
THE ORGANIZATION UPHELD.
A History of Trade Combinations
From Their Earliest Inception
and the Great Good Which They
Have Accomplished.
Labor should Re Sustained.

LONDON, April % - New York Herald
Cabe-Speeal to the BEE. saturdays
Catholic Tablet will contain the ensuing ar
tcle by Cardinal Manning on the relation of
the Knights of Labor to the church, and by
the courtesy Of the editor of that influential
Catholic paper an early copy reached your
correspondent to-day:
Some perplexity may arise from the fact
that the Knights of Labor were conde mned
and deprived of the sacraments by the arch
bishops and bishops of Canada, but have
now been recognized and restored on petit
tion of ten out of the twelve archbishops,
and, with some exceptions, of the bishops of
the United States, by the holy see. The
solution of this apparent diversity is ready
at hand. In its first formation the associa-
tiOn of the knights of Labor had more OF
less marks of a secret society and as such
fell reasonably under the censure of the
bishops of Canada. Since that time the
president of the Knights of Labor has been
changed. He is, as Cardinal Gibbons attests
faithful Catholic. and the organization has
undergone revision In all those points
which exposed it to the censure. Cardinal
Gibbons afirms: l. That in its constitution
and laws there is nothing which is con-
denned by the holy see. 2. That there is
no oath. 3. There Is no obligation to Sc
cresy toward competent ecclesiastical au-
thority, even outside the confessional. 4.
There is no promise of blind obedience
and obligation beyond the distinctly
declared object of the association. Finally,
there Is no hostility either against the church
or against the state To this must be added
that a very large proportion of the Knights
OF Labor are faithful, practicing Catholics. 1t
is upon these grounds that the censure,
scnI ifc old o>Io &c,
withdrawn. The cardinal of Baltimore, in
his letter to Cardinal Smeoni, urges with
great force the wisdom and necessity which
bids the Catholic church not only to be the
mother but the friend and guide of the
millions who live by the labor of their hands.
Here follows extended quotations from the
letter. AS the whole text Of this weighty
document has been printed, we need give no
more than the foregoing outline OF its argu-
ments. We will therefore go on to justify
the principles upon which it is founded, and
in doing so We will cansider what are the
Knights of Labor and what are the rights
of lawful organization. In canon law, sav-
cry is deemed as a state sanctioned by the
law of nations but contrary to the law of
nature. Much confusion has existed upon
this point By the law of nature no man
can be sold, and no man can sell
| himself, and no man can buy man
nor held property in man slavery. The jew
| ish law consisted in the sale and purchase of
| the labor of a man, not the man himself, and
whatever the, nations in christendom may
have held and taught the christian law has
never sanctioned the violation of the natural
| law that man held property in man-slavery !;
that the Russian emperor was a violator of
the law of nature-serfdom. Chrstendom
/ fOun0n1 nnOn christian and Ia
Neither slavery nor serfdom exists any
longer.
| In the English-speaking peoples world
that is, in the new world, which seems to be
moulding our future-a wOrkingman is a
| free man, both in his person and in the labor
of his hand. The mere muscular labor of his
| arms is his own to sell as
he wills, to whomsoever he wills,
and wherever and for whatever time
he wills, and at whatever price he can. If his
labor be skilled or even half-skilled labor, II
is all the more valuable and absolutely his
own possession. In truth 1t is the most
precious form of capital which gold and sill
yer may purchase, but on which gold and
silver absolutely depend. Money is but dead
capital after all, but the live capital of human
intelligence and the human hand is the
primeval and vital capital of the world. I'm
less these rights of labor can be denied, the
liberty of organization to protect these rights
and the freedom founded on them cannot be
denied.
The association of labor In its various
kinds is traceable in the Greek, Roman, and
christian civilization OF the world. The
hetaieral of the Greeks and the collegia OF
the Romans were tried associations
Cavalliere di Rossini, in his work on thu
inscriptions in the museum of st. John, latel
on, has pointed out many examples of thes,
associations, and this traditional practice
has passed into christian law and exists In
Rome down to this day. In the church Of
Santa Maria Dell Oreo, every chapel belongs
to and is maintained by some college or uni
versity of the various trades. 1t may be sai(
that the labor and industries of the christian
world have always organized themselves TO
mutual improvement ana defense. Th
crafts guilds and the firth guilds OF the Scan
dinavian and Saxon races sowed the frs
seeds not only of our great commercial pros
perty, but even of our municipal towns
The crafts guilds at first contained both mas
tiers and workmen. When the mas
ters become capitalists they forme'
guilds of their own, and the workmen
for mutual protection, united among them
selves. The live capital and dead capita
ttstOOu luce W laCe III tuluSOulSlu, Dut always
in the end were reconclled either by wise ar
btration or by wise and just laws. 1t is
noatble fact in our English history that thes
guilds, with which the imperial laws con
tjnued to deal oppressvely, were always
recognized, incorporated and chartered b.
the laws of the kings of England.
1t would seem as If the temperate law
abiding spirit of our race, SO long as equa
laws prevailed, rendered all such organIza
tion innocent, safe and fruitful of the publ
welfare. 1t must not be for gotten that SOM
. of the most ancient cities were formed by al
, aggregation of crafts guild. We still posses
J statutes of such guilds dating from tn
eleventh century. There were twelve guild
in Norway, twelve in Kings Lynn, nine il
Bishops Lynn, Canterbury had three, an
Over had guilds and a guild hall. York ha
4 three and Beverly had four. But London
believed to have been the birthplace Of guild:
4 and the constitution of London was base
3 upon guilds and served as model for othe
. English towns. According to the judic
civitates Lundonii, In the time of Kin
Athestane the firth and guilds of Londo
|, | united into one guild, which governed tb